Philippa H. Campbell

Technology For Persons with Severe Disabilities Practical and Ethical Considerations

Technological advances relevant to the needs of persons with severe handicaps are emerging at a rapid rate. These devices and adaptations have significant potential for enhancing opportunities for integration, independence, and personal choice for this group of individuals. This article discusses several critical issues related to the use of technology: (a) obstacles to the use of adaptations and technological devices, (b) strategies for the selection, design, and use of adaptations and technological devices, and (c) an approach for incorporating technology into the integrated team planning process. Consideration is given to ethical and philosophical issues that must guide the application of new technological advances.

The Integrated Programming Team: An Approach for Coordinating Professionals of Various Disciplines in Programs for Students with Severe and Multiple Handicaps

Historically, several different team structures have been used to provide assessment and programming by various disciplines in educational settings. Student goals are established on the basis of isolated assessments by each team member with remedial programming provided through either direct (hands-on) or indirect (consultative) services. This article describes an alternate approach to team programming that uses parents and professionals to select unified programming goals, provide direct and indirect related services, integrate programming methods, and monitor student progress. Program philosophy and overall functional assessment-curriculum organizes team members and guides implementation within various educational structures serving students with severe disabilities.

Statewide Intervention Systems: An Overview of the New Federal Program for Infants and Toddlers with Handicaps:

Public Law 99–457 amended Public Law 94–142 to add Part H, a discretionary formula grant program for infants and toddlers with handicaps. The legislation allows implementation of statewide systems of early intervention services, characterized by 14 required components. This paper presents the results of analyses obtained through review of applications for the Part H program submitted by 50 states and the District of Columbia. Two primary measures were investigated to determine potential differences among states on the basis of type of lead agency and previous activities related to early intervention for infants and toddlers. The first was the number and type of required components selected for emphasis during initial year activities. The second was the allocation of funds for administration, interagency coordinating council, planning, and services. In general, states demonstrated relative consistency across a number of factors while significant differences and variability were noted on others. These results are discussed in terms of implications for the development of quality services for infants and toddlers and their families and of priority needs to ensure successful implementation of this program.

Evaluation and Assessment in Early Intervention for Infants and Toddlers.

This article examines assessment as it pertains to the development of IFSPs under Part H of PL 99-457. Specific attention is drawn to determining eligibility and where, in the IFSP process, assessment data can be collected. Implications for early intervention programs are highlighted.

Measuring Changes in Movement Skills with Infants and Young Children with Handicaps

Posture and movement abilities are typically measured by assessments of achievements of motor milestone skills. Performance of a skill within appropriate chronological age limits is one dimension of posture and movement. Qualitative dimensions, including postural tone and the pattern of coordinated movement used in performance, are equally important with young children. This article describes a programmatic approach for measuring qualitative dimensions and performance of functional movement. Features of the approach include: (a) selection of intervention targets, (b) baseline assessment, (c) intervention sequences, (d) measurement, and (e) interpretation and decision making. Data that were collected, using this approach, with infants and young children enrolled in an early intervention program are presented to illustrate measurement and interpretation.

First-Year Implementation of the Federal Program for Infants and Toddlers with Handicaps A View from the States

All 50 states and appropriate territories were surveyed through questionnaire and follow-up phone interview to determine status in implementing various requirements of the new federal Program for Infants and Toddlers with Handicaps, established through P.L. 99-457. Questions focused on the states interagency coordinating council, definition of developmental delay, and activities related to each of the required 14 minimal components of statewide early intervention systems. Results indicated variance among states in activities being emphasized during the first program year with positive commitments toward participation in this new program.

The Modifiability of Intelligent Behavior

Piagets theory of intellectual development provides educators of handicapped individuals with an instructional framework that views development as an ordinal sequence in which later forms of complex behavior are derived from earlier and less complex response forms. Piagetian-based curricular attempts in special education may have to begin with a system for representing the individuals current level of behavioral organization and designing environmental interactions that expand the constructions of the individual into reorganized, more complex forms. While Piagetian theory can define the content of instruction for handicapped people, it is the application of the principles of applied behavior analysis that guides the teacher in the systematic arrangement of instructional events necessary to produce behavioral change.